Selective multiple feed device for rolling mills



y 1942- J. H. MORRISON ET AL 2,290,443

SELECTIVE MULTIPLE FEED DEVICE FOR ROLLING MILLS- 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed'Oct. '7, 1940 Fig.1

visa/z July 21, 1942. J. H. MORRISON ETAL SELECTIVE MULTIPLE FEED DEVICE FOR ROLLING MILLS 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 7, 1940 nll-Illk! v Jami/Miriam a fi arlyJ'firilly W Fly. 5

y 1942- J. H. MORRISON ETAL. 2,290,443

SELECTIVE MULTIPLE FEED DEVICE FOR ROLLING MILLS 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 lriron M WMW V M July 21, 1942. J. H. MORRISON ET AL 2,290,443 I SELECTIVE MULTIPLE FEED'DEVICE FOR ROLLING MILLS Fi l ed Oct. 7, 1940 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 I 25 24 o 29 IUIUI m Ill @JJVIIIIIIIII-I lmulLk 5p x @ZZI AHIIIII Y Jaime; flA/arrisazz v Patented July 21,

SELECTIVE MULTIPLE FEED DEVICE FOR ROLLING MILLS James H. Morrison, Pittsburgh, and Harry J.

Pa., assignors to Pittsburgh Gehring, Charleroi,

Steel Company, Pittsburgh, Pa, a corporation of Pennsylvania Application October 7, 1940, Serial No. 360,028

(Cl. (iii-43) 6 Claims.

The invention relates to rolling mills, andmore particularly to feed bars from a heating means for feeding heated furnace selectively to any one of three or more entry positionsof a hot rolling mill.

During a certain stage. in the manufacture of wire, and particularly steel wire, bars which may be approximately 1%" t o 2" square and some 30 feet in length are entered into a heating furnace.

When heated to the proper hot rolling temperature the bars are discharged one by one from the heating furnace to the first grooved roll stand of a series of roll stands of which mill the bars are a hot rolling mill, in reduced to rods.

The rolls of each roll stand ordinarily have three or more sets of carrying out the rolling stands and the drives th to simultaneously roll a the grooves thereof at one time. prior constructions known to us,

ever been available for grooves formed therein for operation, and such roll erefor are strong enough nd reduce bars in all of However, in all no means has feeding bars from the single discharge location of the heating furnace to more than two sets of roll grooves, with the result that the maximum rolling done by any one stand of rollsat any one time has been two bars part of the time and one bar the remainder of the time.

This situation has existed in the operation of hot bar mills for nearly forty years, and has restricted the productive output of allhot rod mills operated, because the available feed means, such as illustrated in Patents- Nos. 653,507 and 740,418,

hot rod mills constitute the productive capacity the steel industry.

the bottle neck limiting of existing rod mills in It is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to provide creasing the productive rod mills.

means for materially incapacity of existing hot It is also a primary object of the present invention to materially increase the potential productive capacity of rolling mills, by associating and combining an improved feeding device with existing furnaces andslow and expensive mills and furnaces.

It is a further object to which will feed a bar discharge station of a mills, without requiring the stallation of additional of the present invention provide a feeding device for a rolling mill,

r the like from a single heating furnace to any open one of. a plurality of three or morev roll entry positions, selectively at, will, irrespective of the presence of other bars extending from portions of the furnace to any or. all of. the remaining. roll entry positions.

It is also an objectof the, present invention to provide a feeding devicefor a. rolling mill which will enable more than two bars or the like to. be successively fed from a single discharge station of a heating furnace to be simultaneously rolled on a rolling mill.

Likewise, it is an. object of the present invention to provide an improved selective feeding device for a rolling mill, which is simple and. inexpensive to install and which may be readily and easily opera-ted by any operator familiar with the operation of hot rod. mills and.- the-like;

These and other objects may be obtained. and the prior art difficulties overcome by the devices, constructions, arrangements, combinations, parts, elements and apparatus-which comprise the present invention, the nature of which is set forth in the following general statement, a preferred embodiment of which is set forth in the following description, and isshown in thedrawings, and which are particularly and distinctly pointed out and set forth in the appendediclaims forming part hereof.

The nature of the improved apparatus of the present invention may be stated in general terms as including in a feed device for feeding bars. or,

the like successively from a single discharge station of a heating furnace selectively" to any one of a plurality of three or more roll entry positions, a feed table, combined raising and guide baflie or blade means mounted in operative relation with respect to the table, means for selectively or simultaneously operating any one or more of said baflle or blade means to raise or lower the same, and said .bafiie or blade means including a bafiie or blade located in front of each roll entry position directed toward each other roll entry position of a roll stand having three or more entry positions.

By way of example, a preferred embodiment of the improved apparatus is illustrated in the accompanying drawings forming part hereof in which Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of a hot rod mill and heating furnace therefor equipped with the improved selective multiple feed device;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the improved feed device showing parts. of the furnace and first roll stand in section; V

Fig. 8 is a side elevation with certain parts in section of the apparatus illustrated in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a top plan view similar to Fig. 2, illustrating some of the feed device operating mechanism;

Fig. 5 is a front elevation with parts in section of some of the apparatus illustrated in Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged view illustrating one operative position of the improved feed device;

Fig. '7 is a sectional view taken on the line Fig.

Fig. 8 is an enlarged view similar to Fig. 6, showing a second operative position of the improved feed device;

Fig. 9 is a section taken on the line 9-9, Fig. 8;

Fig. 10 is a view similar to Figs. 6 and 8 showing a third operative position of the improved feed device; and

Fig. 11 is a section taken on the line I, Fig. 10.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the various figures of the drawings.

In the drawings, a bar heating furnace is illustrated generally at I2 and may include a heating hearth l3. Bars enter the furnace l2 one by one from a station [4 and are pushed by pusher means I5 to a single discharge station Hi, from which location they are pushed one by one by pusher means endwise through furnace exit door |8 to the improved feed device generally indicated at IS.

The improved feed device l9 feeds the bars selectively to any one of three operative positions of the first stand of grooved rolls of a hot bar mill generally indicated at 2|, which may include a usual number of successive roll stands after the initial or entry roll stand 20. The bars are rolled and reduced on the bar mill 2| in accordance with usual practice to form rods or the like, and are then coiled on reels in the usual manner for further desired treatment.

The rod mill 2| and bar heating furnace |2 may be of any usual or well knownconstruction, and the present invention deals more particularly with the improved selective feed device generally indicated at l9 and its cooperative and coordinated location and arrangement with respect to the heating furnace and the rod mill.

As shown, the rolls of each roll stand are provided with three grooves marked X, Y and Z, and the entry roll stand 20 is provided with. an entry box 22 having passages 23, 24 and 25 leading respectively to grooves X, Y and Z. The improved feed device l9 includes a feed table 26, on which outer stationary guide brackets 21, 28 and 29 are mounted.

A plurality of raising and guide baffles, plates or blades A, B, C, D and E are movable in and extend upwardly through staggered slots provided therefor in the feed table 26 and extend angularly in one direction or another with respect to a longitudinal center line passing through the rolling mill 2| and furnace door l8. As shown. the slots for plates A, C and D are parallel to each other and are all angled in the same direction; the lots for plates B and E are parallel to each other and are all angled inthe same direction; and the slots for plates B and E are angled in a difierent direction from the slots for plates A, C and D.

These guide baiiles may be individually or independently moved with respect to the feed table or raised and lowered between a position or location in which their top surfaces are flush with the top surface of the feed table, and a position or location in which their top surfaces are projected or located above the top surface of table 26 a greater distance than the maximum cross sectional dimension of any bar being fed from the furnace |2 to rolling mill 2| by the feed device l9.

The raising and lowering of guide baflles A, B, C, D and E may be effected by any suitable means as by pivotally connecting the lower ends thereof as at 30 (Fig. 5) to levers 3|, one end of each of which is pivotally connected at 32 to brackets 33 mounted on the underside of feed table 26. The other end of each lever 3| may be provided with a counterweight 34 and with a raising line such as a chain 35 extending up and around a sheave or pulley 36 mounted on a bracket 31 on the roof of furnace l2. The chains 35 are connected respectively to piston rods 38 of hydraulic cylinders 39, the operation of which may be controlled by suitable valves (not shown) conveniently located for operation by an operator who ordinarily stands beside the feed device l9 and furnace exit door l8.

As shown, one of cylinders 39 (Fig. 3) by an inverted Y chain connection, may operate bafiies A and D simultaneously. For convenience, small letters a, b, c, d and e have been placed on Fig. 3 below the lever assemblies respectively for operating baffles A, B, C, D and E.

The bars being heated in heating furnace 2 are generally indicated by the numeral R, and referring to Figs. 1 and 6 to 11, inclusive, a bar being entered (Figs. 6 and 7) into roll groove X is indicated RX, a bar being entered into roll groove Y (Figs. 8 and 9) is indicated RY, and a bar being entered into roll groove Z (Figs. 10 and 11) is indicated RZ.

In Figs. 6 and 7, the bar RX being entered into groove X is shown in full lines, and the locations of bars RY and RZ, which may have been entered into grooves Y and Z, are shown in dot-dash lines. Similarly, in Figs. 8 and 9, the bar RY being entered into groove Y is shown in full lines, and the locations of bars RX and RZ being rolled in grooves X and Z are shown in dot-dash lines. Also, in Figs. 10 and 11, bar RZ, being entered into groove Z, is shown in full lines and the locations of bars RX and RY being rolled in grooves X and Y are shown in dot-dash lines.

Bars RX, RY and RZ are all pushed out of furnace l2 from the same location or station l6, and by means of theimproved feeding device, one or a plurality of the bars moving from the furnace through the rolls may be raised to permit a third bar to be passed underneath the rear portions of the other two bars into any one of the three grooves X, Y or Z, Whichever happens to be open.

To accomplish this, a bar passing along the position shown by RX may be raised by guide baflie B; a bar passing along the location indicated by RY will be raised by either guide bafiie C or E; and a bar passing along the location indicated by RZ may be raised by guide baffles A and D. Bar RX i guided into groove X by guide plates A and C and also stationary guides 28 and 29. Bar RY is guided into groove Y by guide plates A, B and D. Bar RZ is guided into groove Z by guide plates B and E and stationary guide 21.

Stationary guide projections 40 and 4| may also project upwardly from feed table 26 to continue defining channels 23, 24 and 25 formed by entry box 22.

The improved feed device may operate typically as follows:

A first bar RX pushed out of furnace l2 may be fed to. groove X. by having. previously raised guide plates A and C (Fig. 6). Immediately, guide plate B is raised, guide plates A and C are lowered, and guide plate E may be raised to feed a second bar RZ into groove Z (Fig. 10). Bar RZ necessarily must pass underneath the rear portion of bar RX; which is not yet out of furnace I2, because all of the bars are pushed from the same general location It of the furnace.

Now, with guide plate 13 still raised, guide plates A and D are raised and guide plate E is lowered, thus raising the rear portions of both barsRX and RZ up so that another bar RYmay be fed from the furnace into the center groove Y (Fig. 8). Thereafter, it makes no. difference which bar groove X, Y or Z first becomes free, because by manipulation of guide plates A, B, C, D and E, the next bar from the furnace can be immediately entered into any one of the three grooves X, Y and Z.

Thus, the mill illustrated, can roll two bars all of the time in the three groove roll stands with three bars being rolled substantially all of the time. .As a result, in actual operation, a mill which had been operated for many years with a maximum production of approximately 43,000 pounds per hour, was immediately operated with a production of more than 53,000 pounds per hour by the addition of the improved feed device.

The essential conditions of the improved feeding device are that there is at least one angled raising and guide plate in front of each roll groove directed toward each other roll groove. Guide plate B in front of groove X is directed toward both grooves Y and Z; guide plate C in front of groove Y is directed toward groove X; guide plate E in front of groove Y is directed toward groove Z; and guide plates A and D in front of groove Z are directed toward grooves X and Y. The guide plates therefor when moved upward provide means for raising or lifting upward from the table the rear end of any bars being rolled in any grooves and for directing the entry of another bar into any other groove of a mill having at least three grooves; and the guide plates when moved downward, are in a non-lifting and non-guiding location.

The improvement is not limited to rolling on roll stands having three grooves or passes because by substantially duplicating the construction for say four, five or six grooves. in which duplicated construction there are raising and guide plates in front of each groove which cut off the entry into that groove and direct the entry to any one of the other grooves, four, five or six strands or bars can be rolled simultaneously at one time.

Moreover, the invention is not limited to the rolling of bars or rods on a hot bar mill, because the same device can be used on a wide strip mill for feeding three or more narrow strip strands at one time, and can be also used for feeding three'or more ovals, rectangles, squares, flats or tube rounds to a mill for reducing the same.

Having now described the features of the invention, the construction, operation and use of a preferred embodiment thereof, and the advantaeous, extraordinary and heretofore unattainable results attained by the improved construction; the new and useful parts, elements, combinations, constructions and devices, and reasonable mechanical equivalents thereof obvious to those skilled in the art, are set forth in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for feeding bars and the like successively from a heating furnace selectively to any one of a plurality of three or more rolling mill entry positions, including a feed table, a plurality of baflle plates movable between locations with their top surfaces flush with the top surface of said feed table and locations with their top surfaces projected above the top surface of said feed table, means for selectively raising and lowering any one or more of saidbafile plates with respect to the table, each of said b'afile plates being located in angular relation with respect to the line of travel through said rolling mill, and there being at least four baille plates with at least two differently angled bafile plates located in front of at least one mill entry position, each of said baffle plates being adapted to direct one bar toward a certain mill entry position while raising another bar already passing through another mill entry position above the level of said one bar.

2. Apparatus for feeding bars and the like successively from a heating furnace selectively to any one of three rolling mill entry positions, including a feed table, a baflle plate mounted on the feed table in front of the first rolling mill entry position directed toward the second and third said positions, a baffle plate located in front of the second rolling mill entry position directed toward said first position, a baifle plate located in front of said second rolling mill entry position directed toward said third position, at least one bafile plate located in front of the third rolling mill entry position directed toward the first and second said positions, and means for raising or lowering any one or more of said baflie plates to selectively raise one or more bars being rolled by the mill and direct and guide another bar to any third remaining open roll entry position.

3. Apparatus for feeding bars and the like successively from a heating furnace selectively to any one of a plurality of three or more rollin mill entry positions, including a feed table provided with a plurality of staggered slots, at least one of said slots being angled in the same direction as another slot, at least one of said slots being angled in a different direction from another slot, and all of said slots being angled with respect to the line of travel through said rolling mill; bafile means including a plate movable upward in each of said slots to a location projecting above said table for lifting one or more bars being rolled by the mill upward from the table and for directing and guiding another bar selectively to any third remaining open roll entry position, each plate being also movable downward to a non-lifting and non-guiding location; and means for selectively moving any one or more of said plates to either of said locations.

4. Apparatus for feeding bars and the like' successively from a heating furnace selectively to any one of a plurality of three or more rolling mill entry positions, including a stationary feed table; baffle means mounted for. movement with respect to the feed table and adapted to be projected above the top surface of said table, said bafile means including at least one angled plate located in front of each of at least three roll entry positions directed toward each other roll entry position, and said plates being movable downward to a non-lifting and non-guiding location; and means for selectively raising and lowering the plates for raising bars being fed through one or more entry positions and directing another bar toward a third entry position.

5. Apparatus for feeding bars and the like successively from a heating furnace selectively to any one of a plurality of three or more rollin mill entry positions, including a stationary feed table provided with stationary guide means projecting upwardly from the table to define channels leading to each rolling mill entry position; baffle means mounted for movement with respect to said table, said bafile means including at least one angled plate located in front of each channel directed toward each other channel, said plates being movable independently of each other to locations projecting above the top surface of the feed table for selectively blocking off any of said channels, for lifting upward from the table any bar traversing the feed table and extending along the channel so blocked off, and for directing the forward end of another bar traversing the feed table into another channel;

and means for selectively moving any one or more of said plates to raise or lower the same with respect to the feed table.

6. Apparatus for feeding bars and the like successively from a heating furnace selectively to any one of a plurality of three or more rolling mill entry positions, including a feed table, baflle means mounted for movement with respect to the table, said baffle means including at least one angled plate located in front of each of at least three roll entry positions and directed toward each other roll entry position, and means for selectively moving any one or more of said plates to raise the same to a bar lifting and guiding position and to lower the same to a non-lifting and non-guiding position, each of said baffle plates being adapted to direct one bar toward a certain mill entry position while raising another bar already passing through another mill entry 20 position above the level of said one bar.

JAMES H. MORRISON. HARRY J. GEHRING. 

